8.20.2006

Let's Go Deadwood

Rarely is there a movie that reveals the open secret of the world (Syriana was such a film); rarer still is the television show that does--unless it's on HBO. Think the Sopranos is revealing? Try Deadwood. It's the first show that examines the construction of an entire society from scratch, and as with the Sopranos, is free of the veneer of civilized society that we routinely bullshit ourselves with (cf. civility between Congress and the press, the FCC and a certain wardrobe malfunction).

The third and final season tells the tale of late 19th Century Gilded Age America: the rise of corporate power and the channeling of that power into the state. In other words, the sequel to which we're living through now (welcome back!) on a global scale, complete with imperial conquest in the service of neo-mercantilism and the suppression of labor (the Old Deal?). And what's the fulcrum on which much of this power turns? Why, your friend and mine, the rigged election. As the smoldering robberbaron George Heart tells a sycophantic politician:

Elections do not inconvenience me. They ratify my will or I neuter them.

Stick that in your peace pipe and smoke it.

SUPER HAPPY BONUS: Rome is shooting its second season. That would be, er, the third HBO show that dramatically plays out how the real world works. Turns out the reviled Mr. Chomsky was right when he said, "Same shit, different show."